''World in Conflict'' is a 2007 [[RealTimeStrategy Real Time Tactics]] game by Creator/MassiveEntertainment. Set during the closing days of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, the game explores what might have happened had the Warsaw Pact countries decided to start WorldWarIII instead of allowing the gradual collapse of its constituent governments. Best described as Film/RedDawn1984 [[XMeetsY meets]] Videogame/GroundControl, the game eschews traditional [=RTS=] elements in favour of a more tactical approach: no base building occurs, units are air-dropped, and individual armies rarely number more than a dozen units.

The single-player campaign takes place in 1989. The Soviet Union, bankrupt and desperate, launches a surprise attack across its European borders, surprising the rest of the world. The conquest is at first a success, but as the months go by NATO rallies, and it becomes clear that the Soviets are overstretched and out of momentum, causing the conflict to settle into a stalemate. In a massive gamble, the Soviet Union smuggles several battalions into Seattle harbour on freight ships, counting on the fact that most U.S. troops are tied up overseas. The story is told through the eyes of a [[SupportingProtagonist subordinate]] to the legendary Colonel Sawyer, [[PlayerCharacter Lieutenant Parker]], as Sawyer's battalion fights a desperate war to contain the [[RedScare red menace]].

''World in Conflict'' is lauded for its multiplayer, which has the player assume a specific role in combat, commanding only a small, specialized force on the battlefield and working together with the other players to win. The matches are fast-paced and map types are strongly influenced by FPS games, with modes such as Domination[[note]]the teams try to hold more control points than their rivals for as long as possible[[/note]] or Assault[[note]]the two teams take turns defending or assaulting the control points[[/note]]. Since there are no [[CommandAndConquerEconomy resources to gather]], the game is instead based around strategical control points that need to be captured.

An ExpansionPack was released in 2009, titled ''Soviet Assault''. The expansion added six new missions interwoven into the existing campaign that covered the Soviet side of the story, as well as four multiplayer maps which were later released for free. The expansion pack was not well-received, as it did not have any new gameplay features at all. %%was it poorly received by players as well as press?

The game was well-received both by critics and by consumers, with common praise being the then-impressive graphics, the compelling gameplay, the entertaining team-based multiplayer modes and a strong single-player campaign and narrative. Since the sale of Massive Entertainment to Creator/{{Ubisoft}} by then-publisher Creator/{{Activision}} the only thing to come out of the series has been the delayed and poorly-received ''Soviet Assault'', and since Massive has since moved on to other projects, it is probably that ''World in Conflict'' has become an OrphanedSeries.

----!!This game features examples of the following tropes:

* AchievementSystem: In multiplayer, you gain medals and badges for various scoring points or winning matches, among other things. Medals and badges are tiered bronze, silver, and gold; the screen that displays them also explains (via tooltips) the requirements for unlocking them. You can also view players' medals in their public online profiles on the Massgate service website.* TheAlliance: NATO (duh).* AlternateHistory: What if the Communist states of the 1980s tried to prevent their collapse by attacking the West?* AnachronicOrder: The single-player campaign is told middle first, then beginning, then end. The Soviet missions are similarly paced, as they are interwoven into the vanilla campaign.* AnAsskickingChristmas: Played straight, and then [[TearJerker painfully subverted]]. Parker and the rest of the U.S. forces successfully drive the Soviets out of the festively-decorated Cascade Falls, only for fresh new Soviet reinforcements to arrive, [[spoiler: necessitating the use of a nuclear strike, and Captain Bannon stays behind to draw the Russians into ground zero. The entire ending cutscene is simply heartwrenching.]]* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: The player is given a fixed amount of points to buy units with, which limits the size of any given army. The points refill after a unit is lost or is disbanded, over time. In multiplayer, the most a player can command at once is 20 units (not counting the infantry squads consisting out of 4 soldiers), but generally no more than about 6 units will be deployed at the same time. Additional units can be deployed with air-drop Tactical Aids that don't count towards this limit.%% The below example needs an actual example of the types of stratagems used.%%* ArtificialBrilliance: The multiplayer bots are programmed to emulate player behaviour as much as possible, and are often capable of sophisticated stratagems.* BigDamnHeroes: In 3rd mission of American campaign you are taking part in defending the Pine Valley town against massive Soviet attack. When finally Reds are starting overrunning you, suddenly, the USS ''Missouri'' appears and starts annihilating the Soviets. And then you can use its guns to finish off the rest of enemy forces.** In 3rd mission of Soviet campaign, the Colonel Orlovsky arrives seconds before American civilians are about to be executed by Malashenko's mens in one of the cutscenes.** In the final mission of American storyline, [[spoiler: after a hard fight you manage to finally liberate the Seattle, thus preventing Chinese from making landfall here and, most importantly, prevent a strategic thermonuclear strike on said city. Everything looks good when suddenly ''massive'' Soviet force appears out of nowhere and start beating you ''hard''. And they jamming your communication so you can't call for reinforcements (fortunately, only temporarily). You fight in desperately all-or-nothing last stand when finally, Colonel Wilkins arrive with his tanks and start chewing Russians from the rear]].* BilingualBonus: Many unit barks are made in a language appropriate to their nationality. This is most noticeable with the NATO faction, which does not include two different unit types from the same country. German, French, Danish, Russian, English, Norwegian are but some of the languages spoken in the game, and most are recorded using native speakers. * BittersweetEnding: ** For the American Campaign: [[spoiler:Despite your resounding victory over the Soviet invaders and the lightheartedness of the final scene, much of Seattle and Washington State are in ruins and World War III still rages in Europe and now in Asia, leaving the future uncertain.]] ** For the Soviet Campaign: [[spoiler:The Soviets fail to take America and an AxeCrazy Malshenko kills Colonel Orlovsky. However, the sane Major Lebedjev orders a retreat back to the USSR where the Soviets are still in control of much of the union and Western Europe.]]* BlatantLies / PropagandaMachine: Before each Soviet mission, a propaganda reel plays showing the Soviet leaders' attempts to portray their war effort as way more successful than it actually is, and hide anything from their citizens that might be considered bad. Some of them are quite amusing....** During the missions that take place in America, the Soviet propaganda shows them occupying ''half of the United States'' by the third mission, even the nearby sections of ''Canada and Mexico''. They also claim the American civilian population is welcoming the invasion as a liberation and are joining the Soviets. In reality they only control the area of Washington State near Seattle and Tacoma, with the furthest they ever get being the Cascade mountain range. And the American civilians are ''extremely'' hostile to the invaders, grabbing any gun or weapon they can get their hands on and fighting back. Romanov even says in the mission briefing that Soviet troops were surprised at the level of resistance, and that ''everywhere'' they went they were greeted with gunfire.** A reel for one of the European missions claims that a NATO raid on a major naval base in Russia was just a "minor skirmish"... that took place in occupied Finland.** Possibly subverted by the final mission in which the propaganda broadcaster speaks in what seems to be a more reserved tone, saying that the Soviet premier gave a speech about "sacrifices made, and sacrifices yet to come", implying that the Soviet government is starting to realize that they are not going to get the quick victory they were hoping for... if they even win at all.** Also during the final American mission to liberate Seattle from the Soviets, the player can find Soviet propaganda posters covering the city. Smaller posters can also be seen in the earlier Pine Valley mission by placing the camera in front of the town's billboards. * BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Soviet Assault'', Malashenko decides not to return to Russia and instead makes his way to Seattle to defend it against the inevitable American counterattack. Players who have already completed the first game know that [[ForegoneConclusion it won't end well for the Soviets]].]]* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The original game begins and ends in Seattle. And the expansion pack begins and ends in Lebedjev's limousine.]]* BreakTheHaughty: Captain Bannon, who's arrogance and careless tactics on the battlefield chafes Colonel Sawyer all throughout the campaign. And then he accidentally fires upon a group of surrendering Russian civilians, earning him the Colonel's wrath when they return home. And this is all ''before'' the Russians have even attacked Seattle. * CameraAbuse: Explosions and nuclear fallout will display static and other effects on the screen if they happen too close to the camera. In the campaign, [[spoiler:after the tactical nuke is detonated halfway through the story, [[http://youtu.be/Bsk_2tPIEMM?t=2m40s the entire next chronological mission]] is played with the static effect turned on.]]* [[spoiler:ChineseWithChopperSupport]]: [[spoiler:China enters the war on the Soviet side,]] forcing the Americans to take back Seattle before [[spoiler:a Chinese amphibious assault can be mounted.]]* ColonelBadass: Sawyer and his Soviet counterpart Orlovsky. Neither one is anything less than highly competent at what they do -- albeit Orlovsky finds out all too quickly that the invasion is nowhere near as easy as he was told.* CommonTacticalGameplayElements: ''[=WiC=]'' implements a lot of common RealTimeStrategy elements: Fog of War (with a caveat that you can see most of the terrain from the start -- but not what's happening ''on'' it), Scouting (the Infantry role's hat, with their insane viewing range), Movement Modifiers (moving downhill is faster than up), High Ground (firing down increases the tanks' range), Unit Specialization, Attack Range, Flanking (relevant when fighting tanks: they are much more vulnerable from the sides and back than from the front), Friendly Fire (as heavy choppers and artillery, but particularly with Tactical Aids), Taking Cover (infantry hiding the woods and buildings is harder to hit), Indirect Fire (artillery), Blind Firing (via Bombard command), Target Spotting (infantry/paratroopers in combination with any heavier ground unit), Concealment (infantry is invisible in the woods if not attacking or seen by enemy infantry), Smoke Screen (most heavy ground units can protect themselves with smoke, while heavy artillery can deploy a much larger screen at a distance).* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The multiplayer [=AI=], despite being well programmed, still cheats quite a bit. Enemy artillery can fire without needing to reload, can track your units extremely accurately, and the enemy will zero in on your drop zone eventually. This is particularly bad against the Soviets, as they have some very strong artillery. The [=AI=] doesn't respect the point system, either, and will replenish losses with the exact same units almost immediately.* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: All the factions have the same units with the same abilities. While the American heavy tank is the M1 Abrams and the Soviet counterpart is the T-80, they are statistically identical, and ditto for most of the other units. There are a few units that differ here and there, but this is mostly with units that don't see much use on the battlefield.* CosmeticAward: Singleplayer gives you a variety of medals, awards and promotions for completing every objective. Online has a achievement system with the same goals, but there are multiple medals for each category (bronze, silver and gold). Medals are awarded for things like reaching certain scores in one match, being the best player in a match or best of role, total points per role and total, winning matches and launching nukes. A medal system is also in place for clans. None of these awards actually do ''anything'', although reaching a certain rank may be required for some servers or clans.* CoversAlwaysLie: ** The cover prominently features the Statue of Liberty under attack. While there is a mission in New York centered around a surprise attack on Liberty Island, most of the game takes place in Washington State.** The cover art for ''Soviet Assault'' shows New York City getting nuked, even though the only nuclear weapons seen on-screen during the story of either game is a single, relatively small scale tactical nuke.* CreativeClosingCredits: ''Soviet Assault'' credits: lots of photos/videos of development team during work or at their free time and various HilariousOuttakes (like some funny glitches that can happen/happened during production and scenes created by authors just for fun). You can watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-RCk9pnTkg here]].* CriticalExistenceFailure: While most infantry units are composed of Squads that may lose individual members, this applies in full force to any other unit on the field. Buildings' HitPoints also do not effect its integrity and protection for infantry until they run out.* CripplingOverspecialization: All of the multiplayer roles are highly specialized in order to encourage team play:** Infantry are liable to die pretty much whenever they are out of cover to anything firing at them while being the slowest units in the game, though are enormously effective against what enemy the individual unit is made for fighting while they ''are'' dug in and the role is provided vehicle transports -- though the transports are soft-skinned and easily destroyed, with whatever was being transported being destroyed as well.** Armor has the slowest vehicles and is extremely vulnerable to air units, but firepower and hardiness gives it ground superiority.** Support is deficient at direct close-combat, but it provides the crucial anti-air units that prevent the rest of the team from being slaughtered by helicopters. Support also has repair tanks and artillery, with the latter's usefulness being highly situational.** Air is highly mobile and destructive, but the role is very vulnerable to anti-air, and air units can't capture control points.* DarkestHour: [[spoiler:Missions 5 and 11. America has been forced to use a nuclear device on itself, and it is unclear what may happen next. On a more personal level: Bannon is dead, amd Sawyer's company is scattered; stranded in a charred, radioactive wasteland. Bannon's last phone call to his mother really drives in [[TearJerker the mood.]] Only by pure, unshakable cooperation and determination is the company able to reform and fight again.]]* DeadlyGas: One of the Tactical Aid abilities is the Chemical Strike, which calls in a plane to drop gas bombs on a target. The effects aren't particularly graphic (infantry take damage over time), and it only affects infantry. * DeathFromAbove: Not all Tactical Aids spew death, but they all come from the air. They are all quite spectacular, however.* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Averted; attacking an armoured vehicle with weapons that should be incapable of hurting it will do nothing. Most units have a way of hurting armour anyway, but the basic machine guns won't work.* DespairGambit: The Soviet Union, bankrupt and on the verge of collapse, invades Europe and the United States in a desperate bid to save itself.* DestructiveSaviour: Faithful to real life warfare, saving areas is a messy endeavour. When Webb comments on the state of Seattle, Sawyer admits that the U.S. Army caused as least as much damage as the Soviets. There are some objectives based around avoiding this trope for notable buildings, but [[spoiler: the Nuke on Cascade Falls]] is this in full force. At least most buildings are implied to be deserted by civilians. Most missions end with "Victory!" being plastered over a scene of a town reduced to ruins.* DifficultButAwesome: The Infantry multiplayer role. They have the slowest and squishiest units in the game, unless they've gotten to a good position providing cover -- which they likely need to use a fragile transport to reach -- at which point their cover fixes the squishiest part while it holds and the squad easily takes out anything nearby.* DividedWeFall: In multiplayer matches teamwork is everything, as every game mode is team based.* {{Eagleland}}: ** Sabatier attempts to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] the Boorish form on Sawyer in the Mission 9 intro. [[BilingualBackfire It backfires when Sawyer understands Sabatier's insult spoken in French and retorts in the same language.]]---> '''Sabatier:''' ''Vous arrogants Americains, vous pensez que vous dirigez le monde comme il vous plais.'' (You arrogant Americans, think you can run the world as you see fit.)---> '''Sawyer:''' ''Nous avons une guerre à gagner et je vais faire ce qui me semble nécessaire.'' (We have a war to win, and I will do what I deem necessary.)** Played straighter in the mission after that:---> '''Sawyer:''' Okay. Try not to damage the church, Parker. It's apparently very old and has some cultural value to our allies.---> '''Sabatier:''' It was built in the twelfth century! ''Vous n'avez donc aucune culture.'' (Don't you have any culture...)* EasyLogistics: While reinforcements take some time to be air-dropped in (and there is another delay until the plane returns to the off-map base, during which the player can't order any more units) and Tactical Aids take a while to occur, fielded units have unlimited ammo, fuel and other supplies. Infantry units can replace losses in a short amount of time. Reinforcements never run out aside from a few scripted instances in the campaign.* EnemyExchangeProgram: The player can repair and take over vehicles left behind by the other side in certain missions; they apparently do not require crews. One mission features Soviet special forces using a ridiculously large amount of captured U.S. vehicles. Captain Vance, an Army {{Ranger}} [=CO=] helping out in that mission, actually lampshades this, saying that the local base was undermanned and over-supplied. Another mission has the player take over a lot of left-behind vehicles starting with nothing but 3 vehicles. Where the crews come from is a complete mystery.* AFatherToHisMen: Orlovsky is well-respected by his men, and cares deeply for them. Malashenko has these tendencies too, but they are also the catalyst for his StartOfDarkness.* {{Feelies}}: The collector's edition included a small, authentic piece of the Berlin Wall.* FogOfWar: As with Videogame/GroundControl, and unlike most other games in the RTS genre, this game doesn't use visible fog of war, although it is still functionally there. In addition, units are not automatically revealed when they open fire if the enemy can't see them; in particular, artillery units need to have their shots traced by sight to determine the position of the units.* ForeShadowing: Sebatier's lover dreamt [[spoiler:that he was killed, which is what happened in the next mission.]]* FragileSpeedster: The Air role's units are fast and do good damage - however, they are incapable of taking points and die quickly when targeted. Similarly, the Infantry role's transports are also fragile, although somewhat slower in comparison.* GameLobby: There's a lobby for clan matches, as opposed to free-for-all servers that can be joined by anyone at any time.* GarrisonableStructures: Riflemen and Anti-Tank squads become formidable against vehicles when garrisoned, but [[CriticalExistenceFailure do keep an eye on the structural integrity of the building]].* GatlingGood: The Americans have two units which use gatling-like weaponry: the [=M163=] Vulcan, which is used primarily for {{Anti Air}}[[note]]it can be toggled to fire on ground units if necessary, and it is effective against lightly armoured vehicles and below[[/note]], and the A-10 Warthog, which is called in as an [[AntiArmor Anti-Tank]] Tactical Aid.* GeneralFailure: Captain Bannon, through a combination of cowardice, glory-hounding and incompetence.* GlassCannon: The Infantry role's units. Their weapons are as effective as any vehicle's [[CripplingOverspecialization against their intended targets]], but without trees or buildings for cover, they tend to die when enemies look at them funny.* HeroicMime: Player characters Parker and (in ''Soviet Assault'') Romanov are never heard to speak in-game; Parker has a bodily presence in certain cutscenes but we never see his face, and Romanov is never seen at all. They are, respectively, white American and Slavic, though. [[spoiler: The intro to the final mission to retake Seattle reveals that the narrator of the U.S. missions (voiced by Alec Baldwin) is, in fact, Parker, though at that point it should be pretty obvious. By the same token, it is implied that the 2nd narrator of the Soviet missions -- the one talking about the realities of the war -- is Romanov.]]* HeroicSacrifice: At the climax of the first arc of the story, [[spoiler:the foolish and cowardly Captain Bannon redeems himself by volunteering for a holding action against an overwhelming Soviet force so that the tactical nuke intended for them can take proper effect.]]* HoldTheLine: A frequent mission objective in the campaigns. Often, the player will be tasked with taking a particular set of strategic points and holding them for a few minutes; after the timer is up, [=AI=]-controlled reinforcements will usually shift drop zones to cover the newly captured area, and bunkers will be set up. Storywise, during the Invasion of Seattle, a panicked Private is heard on the radio screaming about how the Soviets won't get one inch further. Whether he succeeded or not is left open.* HomeGuard: Most of the campaign has you commanding units of the Washington and Oregon National Guard.* HumiliationConga: For the Soviets, NATO's incursion into the north near Murmansk definitely qualifies; while the Politburo passes it off as a "minor skirmish", it is clear that the Soviet Army is both furious and shaken that such a devastating infiltration had been managed by their opponents before they were finally able to drive them out. * InferredHolocaust: If you fail to retake Seattle before the nuclear attack is launched, it is implied that this is what befalls the world as the Soviets also resort to nuclear weapons in response to the Americans having resorted to them ''twice'' in repelling the invasion. * ImpressivePyrotechnics: The game includes fire support options ranging from mortar bombardment through napalm drops and carpet bombing by B-52s all the way to tactical nuclear strikes, all depicted with massive amounts of sound and fury. * InfantImmortality: Mostly played straight onscreen; however, the occasional presence of children amid such scenes of open war, particularly in one cutscene where a little girl stops her bike and watches the Soviet paratroopers rain down from the sky are sobering reminders that yes, children are not free from the horrors of war. Those who live to tell of what they see inevitably lose all childhood innocence.** Subverted in ''Soviet Assault'', where [[spoiler:Malashenko's wife and newborn daughter are both killed offscreen during the NATO raid on Northern Russia.]] * InvadedStatesOfAmerica: The basic premise of the story; the game starts when Soviet troops manage to launch a surprise attack by using freight ships to get close to Seattle harbour without arousing suspicion until it is too late, and then start to make their way inland. This invasion occurs to the backdrop of WorldWarIII; the setting is explored later in the campaign.* InstantWinCondition: Since there are no bases, campaign missions usually have you fighting endlessly respawning enemy troops with your own army of respawning forces. After a while of not screwing this up, the game declares that you win, although the fight rages on behind the victory screen.* ItsAWonderfulFailure: If you fail the last mission in the vanilla game, [[spoiler:the Pentagon will authorize a nuke to destroy Seattle to prevent the Chinese invasion.]] That's not the trope, though. [[spoiler: The Soviets will see the Americans' willingness to use nukes, so they'll launch a nuclear strike of their own. The rest is history.]]* ItsRainingMen: Infantry unit creations and reinforcements parachute down to the field. In fact, ''all'' land units are air-dropped in, included the heaviest tanks.* JackOfAllTrades: ** The purview of the Infantry role, whose unique infantry units are capable of fighting off all the other roles... [[CripplingOverspecialization as long as they can get to cover first]]. The role also includes the Troop Transport unit, which is one of the few units that can repair vehicles. ** The Infantry squad is incredibly versatile, as the combined arms of the individual soldiers make the squad capable of attacking every unit in the game, as long as the soldier carrying that particular piece of equipment isn't killed.** The Armored Transport of the Armor role is capable of damaging every unit in the game.* JustAStupidAccent: Played with. [=NATO=] units are almost all from a different country, and this is reflected in their speech. Most responses to commands are given in a heavily exaggerated accent, likely to allow [[TropesAreNotBad quick identification of units]], but unit chatter is made in that unit's native language, and the voice actors are clearly native speakers. This applies to the Russian units as well; American units mostly have similar accents, however.* KillItWithFire: There are numerous incendiary weapons in the game. In particular, using napalm and fire-bombs to burn down forest cover is important to countering infantry; one of the Soviet missions has you field testing a particularly strong such bomb.* KindaBusyHere: Infantry units respond with this if you select them while they're engaged in combat.* KnightTemplar: Capt. Malashenko in the ExpansionPack. He does have a [[ItsPersonal convincing reason]], though: [[spoiler:his wife and baby daughter are killed during Sawyer's surprise raid near Murmansk]].* MajorlyAwesome: [[spoiler: The Player Character in the end. Going from 1st Lieutenant to Captain in a few months is unheard and would never be down in real life.... except for the man who saved the Statue of Liberty, held the line in the Cascade Mountains, and finally pushed the Soviets out of Seattle.]]* MauveShirt: A CGI scene shows many American soldiers in transport helicopters gearing up and readying themselves to fight. A bunch of those choppers then get shredded by anti-air guns.** ThoseTwoGuys whose B-Plot is about the (then) new CD player and how they can't get batteries for it in warzones. [[spoiler: The final scene is the two of them finally listening to it in liberated Seattle.]]* TheMedic: The Repair Tank, being one of the few units capable of repairing but is completely unarmed. However, it is still in the body of a tank and is fairly hardy. The Humvee also counts. * MercyInvincibility: Your units get several seconds of invincibility when they first spawn. Most noticeable if you get hit by a nuke the moment your units arrive and they all miraculously survive.* MissionControl: You always have a commanding officer who pops in to give you mission updates and assign new objectives. Usually it's Colonels Sawyer or Orlovsky, but Captains Bannon and Malashenko and Majors Lebedjev and Webb also do so on occasion.* MonumentalDamage: The various multiplayer and single player maps feature numerous recognizable landmarks; all of them can be destroyed in the former, but only some in the latter, due to the way each mission is scripted:** Subverted in Seattle -- the Soviets destroy the Kingdome, a sports stadium that is only really recognizable by Seattleites, and was demolished seven years before the game was released. ** The Statue of Liberty is endangered in one mission. If the player fails to save it, there is a special cutscene before the GameOver.* MoreDakka: There's ''plenty'' of dakka to go around on both sides, but the true firepower comes from the Tactical Aids you can call onto the map. The Americans, for instance, can call an air to ground strafing run in a straight line wherever on the map they like, and an [[GatlingGood A-10 Warthog]] will happily oblige.* MultinationalTeam: The NATO faction is an amalgam of units from different Western European countries. Their heavy tank and artillery units are German, medium and light tanks and artillery units are British, infantry are French, attack helicopters are Italian and transports are Danish.* MultiplayerDifficultySpike: ZigZagged; by pitting teams of players against each other, it both gives them access to all the destructive potential only glimpsed in the campaign, ''and'' enforces CripplingOverspecialization mostly absent from the single-player.* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Subverted in ''Soviet Assault''; Orlovsky doesn't seem to like invading the United States. In the vanilla campaign, Colenl Sawyer is a mixed example, as while he understands that sometimes sacrifices have to made, he normally would choose civilian lives over other things. However, after Cascade Falls is nuked, he becomes noticeably more 'determined' to achieve victory before another one is used, no matter the cost. See MyGreatestFailure below for more.* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's clear that [[spoiler:when Bannon kills a bunch of surrendering soldiers -- or possibly civilians -- accidentally]], he does not take it well.* MyGreatestFailure: Colonel Sawyer, yet unlike other examples it's not part of the backstory, but part of the plot. He sees having to use the tactical nuclear weapon at Cascade Falls to be his own horrific failure (over the objections of Captain Webb--see the Mission 12 introduction movie) and will do anything--even sacrifice American lives in high-casualty, head-on attacks--to stop another nuke from being used.* NeverTrustATrailer: One trailer for the game depicts Washington, D.C. being nuked by Soviet agents just as they are being intercepted by the US Air Force; no such event is seen or referenced in the game itself, but definitely serves a heavy dose of NightmareFuel. ** In the "Looking For Survivors" trailer as a US tank crew surveys the destruction of Pine Valley, one of them remarks "we're seeing the same thing all over the West Coast"; all the U.S. missions take place in Washington State; additionally, Pine Valley was not actually nuked either as depicted in the trailer. * NoodleIncident: The game hints at a black mark on Sawyer's military career prior to the cutscene showing him being re-activated to command forces in Europe.* NoCampaignForTheWicked: In the original single-player campaign, the Soviets are non-playable. In ''Soviet Assault'', however, they get 6 missions, interwoven into the 14-mission NATO and U.S. campaign.* NoOSHACompliance: Subverted. The opening cinematic when Soviet armoured vehicles are shown being directed off their transports by safety-conscious personnel, wearing professional-looking ear protectors.* PoirotSpeak: When playing as NATO or USSR, units will often speak a single phrase in their native language before delivering the rest of their statement in English.* PoliceAreUseless: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since the police forces of Seattle and Washington State are not meant to engage professional soldiers, armoured vehicles and ''attack helicopters''. Arguably even averted, as they still manage to do their part, and are seen building and defending barricades with revolvers and otherwise helping during the evacuation.--> '''Port Authority Officer:''' [''Dodging a gunship's minigun with his car''] 11-99! [[note]] Officer needs Help. Extreme Emergency. [[/note]] Repeat, 11-99 emergency! They have gunships! I repeat, gunships! We need help immediately, America is under attack!* ThePoliticalOfficer: KGB Major Lebedjev in ''Soviet Assault''. He comments on the deep faith Captain Malashenko has in the Soviet system.* RatedMForManly: The opening cinematic. 30 seconds of gunfire, charges and armored vehicles.* RealityEnsues: The Soviets may have seized large parts of Washington State, but it gradually becomes obvious that for all their guns and tenacity that seizing a country as large and as hostile as the US by conventional means is a fool's errand. Lampshaded by Colonel Orlovsky, who by the time the Americans have launched their offensive to liberate Seattle has given up on any notion of victory, even with the incoming Chinese armada. This is in stark contrast to the Soviet propaganda that insists that the Red Army has encroached half the country, where the Soviets are under constant fire from a rebelling populace and unable to expand their campaign beyond Washington. * RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Bannon chooses stay behind at Cascade Falls to lure the Russians into the blast radius of the nuke.]]* RevengeBeforeReason: Subverted with the already angry Malashenko, who, when he learns his wife was killed by NATO back home, swallows his considerable anger and continues. [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted later as he orders his men to defend Seattle against the American counterattack when it is clear the very notion is completely hopeless, especially since the player knows that the Americans are planning to ''Nuke'' Seattle if they can't take it back. ]]* RightManInTheWrongPlace: At least for the Soviets. Parker and Bannon were in Seattle, either visiting family or getting reassigned for just being in the area when the Soviets attack.* RPGElements: Units gain experience and may rank up 4 times. Promoted units have faster cooldowns for their weapons and special abilities, as well as increased sight and accuracy. However, defense isn't affected in any way.* RunningGag: Mike's has a state-of-the-art portable CD player (it's 1989), but can't find any batteries for it. * SceneryPorn: Odds are you will find yourself admiring the lifelike scenery of every battlefield landscape even as you are laying waste to your opponents; the real-life locales in particular are rendered to stay as true to the real deals as much as possible; as such many prominent landmarks such as the Space Needle, the Brandenburg Gate, the Statue of Liberty, among others are shown in all their splendor.** Also doubles as SceneryGorn; most of the towns you fight in will be reduced to a wasteland of blackened craters and leveled city blocks before the carnage is over. * SeparateButIdentical: While each faction uses vehicles that they used during the Cold War in real life, they pretty much function identically to their counterparts on the other side. One notable exception is the Heavy Artillery unit. The U.S. and NATO use MLRS, while the Soviets use cannon artillery firing just a single powerful shell (yet it has a faster reload time than the Western counterparts).** The Heavy Artillery differences are significant however, as following the smoke trails of the MLRS tips you off to its general location, whereas the cannon artillery is not nearly as vulnerable. In addition, there are minor differences between the various units depending on the faction: for the most part, the U.S. units are more heavily armored than the Soviet units, while the Soviet units are faster. The NATO units also have a slight benefit in speed. Functionally however, two heavy tanks against two heavy tanks will result in a Pyrrhic victory for whoever wins, so it doesn't really matter that much.* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The battle for Seattle has been won and the Soviet invasion of America repulsed, but the war still rages across Western Europe and Asia, and Colonel Sawyer notes that the time may come again where Parker will be called forth to take the battle to the enemy.]] * SharedLifeMeter: An infantry unit has a single life bar, but the health of each individual soldier is tracked separately. This is clearly demonstrated by 100% accurate attacks with no splash damage only killing one soldier at a time (such as a sniper or a [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill heavy tank's HEAT shells]]). Medics can heal only living infantry, and replacements can be airdropped in to replace casualties.* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Partly averted with tanks which have an impressive range (for an RTS unit, anyway) provided a forward scout, but artillery units have a drastically shortened range compared to their real life counterparts, However, this is only true for on-map artillery pieces - artillery strikes ordered through the tactical aid menu can hit anywhere on the map.* ShoutOut: One of the multiplayer maps is set around the Mekong river. The map's name? "[[Film/ApocalypseNow Apocalypse]]".** Captain Bannon is named after the rather more stable and competent protagonist of ''Literature/TeamYankee''.* ShownTheirWork: For a developer based in Sweden, Massive Entertainment did a hell of a job depicting downtown Seattle circa 1989.* SlapOnTheWristNuke: The nuke in multiplayer deals heavy damage and can be used for zone control thanks to the radiation, but it affects a relatively small area, and its huge cost makes it a highly situational tool.* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: In ''Soviet Assault'', Malashenko is the idealist, believing in most, if not all, of his country's propaganda, while Lebedjev is the cynical one. Incidentally, their wives are on the same ends of the scale as them.* StuffBlowingUp: There are a lot of explosions in the game. Most of the support powers involve explosions of some kind, and it is not uncommon for the battlefield to be turned into a carpet of flashes and smoke when things heat up. * StormingTheBeaches: The Soviets use disguised cargo ships to sneak their troops past the U.S. Navy and storm Seattle harbor, beginning their invasion of the United States.** The Soviets also invade southern France by way of amphibious assault.** The player gets to take part in a couple of his own during the New York and Puget Sound missions, as both involve retaking enemy held islands.* SupportingProtagonist: Lieutenants Parker and Romanov may be keys to the military victories of their respective armies, but the story of the game ultimately revolves around the fall and redemption of Colonel Sawyer and Captains Bannon and Malashenko.%% How?* TacticalRockPaperScissors: This is the essence of the multiplayer roles. Air>Armor>Support>Air with Infantry existing as a kind of JackOfAllTrades/contextually useful role on the side of the algorithm. * TakeCover: Infantry can do this in sufficiently dense woods, or [[GarrisonableStructures garrison buildings]].* TatteredFlag: In the multiplayer, there's a subtle example in the two flags shown at the top of the screen among other important match info. The flags start pristine and become increasingly tattered as units are lost. Since reinforcements are infinite and objectives are what counts, it's possible for the flag in worse shape to end up winning the match.* UnitsNotToScale: Averted; every unit is properly scaled in relation to the rest of the game area, which means infantry can be pretty difficult to spot, for good and ill.* WouldNotShootACivilian: ** During the flashback in northern Russia, [[spoiler:Bannon fails to listen to one of his crew and opens fire on surrendering soldiers and/or civilians. Once he finds out what he has done, all the hot air immediately goes out of him, and the event serves to explain everything about him as seen after that point in the timeline.]] ** Orlovsky is enraged at the idea of Malashenko wanting to shoot the Americans conducting guerrilla warfare against the Russians, as the former feels they are still civilians.* YouAreInCommandNow: Happens to Bannon in the open cinematic of the first mission.--> (Bannon is driving a Humvee through the increasingly debris filled streets of Seattle while on the Radio) "This is Captain Bannon! I'm trying to reach the Major!" *Beat* "What!? Well who's in command then? *Beat* "What do you mean 'I Am'?!"* WarIsHell: Played well, as said by the narrators in both Soviet and American sides.* WinterWarfare: A good chunk of the campaign missions take place in wintry conditions. There is a lot of snow and cold in the Cascades missions, to the point that at one moment the U.S. military has to limit the aircraft flying in. Then you have the missions that take place in northern Russia and Norway.* ZergRush: [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard The computer will be trying to do this all the time]]. ''All the time''. Use your artillery and tactical aid ''constantly''.